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Street Style Short Stories: Flash Fiction Takes On Fashion

Karen Russell is the author of Swamplandia! (Knopf, 2011), set in a failing alligator theme park in the Florida Everglades. She is currently a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.Photographed by Phil Oh

Even though fashion month has officially come to a close, gorgeous street-style images still adorn our home pages, influence our wardrobes, and imbue our imaginations. Since cropped shots of the city catwalk betoken stories untold, Vogue asked five captivating New York writers (four of whom have had new novels out this winter) to write a piece of short fiction inspired by one of **Phil Oh’**s entrancing photographs. These authors’ evocative writing styles—from **Karen Russell’**s lush prose in her whimsical Everglades-based novel Swamplandia! to the sharp, satirical, straight-out-of-Williamsburg dialogue in **Alex Gilvarry’**s From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant—make them ideal for bringing a literary twist to these cool looks. Here, they apply their page-turner prowess to head-turning fashion.

Karen Russell is the author of Swamplandia! (Knopf, 2011), set in a failing alligator theme park in the Florida Everglades. She is currently a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.Photographed by Phil Oh

The female robot is an extraordinary mimic, and no one suspects that I, the dog in her satchel, am controlling her movements remotely. Men and women alike are always giving the robot their phone numbers, complimenting its haircut, inviting it to tapas. Not only did I program the robot to locomote on stilettos as if they were ice skates, I also designed its fabulous outfit; it sips skinny-chinos with an inhuman grace and never spills a drop on its white jacket. Meanwhile I steer myself through the busy streets in my soft leather berth, acquiring information for my future takeover. “Sooo cuuute!” the passersby squeal, patting my head, smearing their DNA all over me, and I beam their data directly to my home computer. Although it may have been a tactical error to stage the takeover from this particular bag, which is so luxurious that occasionally passersby ignore me completely and choose to pet the Tory Burch instead. Next time, perhaps, a JanSport.

Karen Russell is the author of Swamplandia! (Knopf, 2011), set in a failing alligator theme park in the Florida Everglades. She is currently a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

Alex Gilvarry is the author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant (Penguin, 2012)—about a burgeoning fashion designer facing terrorist accusations—as well as the founding editor of the website Tottenville Review. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.Photographed by Phil Oh

My Mother’s ColorMy mother wore lime green. This was the 1980s, and she had the color in every style known to woman. Suits and scarves. Shoes and stockings. Handbags. Men and women looked over from their tables in restaurants. Commuters took notice when she rode the subway. I suppose the attention was not necessarily unwanted. She was rarely the center of a room, but you knew when she was in one. I asked her once why she wore so much lime green, and she said, “Because everything else is boring. You have a palette, you should use it. Now finish your brussels sprouts.”

Alex Gilvarry is the author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant (Penguin, 2012)—about a burgeoning fashion designer facing terrorist accusations—as well as the founding editor of the website Tottenville Review. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Heidi Julavits is the author of four novels, most recently The Vanishers (Doubleday, 2012), an emotional account of a mother-daughter rivalry. She is a founding editor of The Believer and lives in Manhattan and Maine.Photographed by Phil Oh

She just wanted to blend in, to look like her surroundings. The best way to always be seen was to be very hard to see; the best way to be seen was to participate in the world as a mobile shard of landscape. That shard might end up the eye of a camera, and that impassive eye would blink and blink. But she was impossible to dislodge. Every picture it took, it took of her.

Heidi Julavits is the author of four novels, most recently The Vanishers (Doubleday, 2012), an emotional account of a mother-daughter rivalry. She is a founding editor of The Believer and lives in Manhattan and Maine.

Richard Mason is the author of four novels, most recently History of a Pleasure Seeker (Knopf, 2012), about a young aesthete at the height of Europe’s Belle Epoque. He lives in New York City.Photographed by Phil Oh

“I’m the king of canceling lunch,” he had said, as though to give her the freedom to cancel too. She had seen the chance; felt her pulse rate rise at the possibility of taking it. But a stern country club upbringing had compelled her to say: “Cancel on you? Who would ever?”And so here she was, as his town car drew up, arranging her lips in a smile.

Richard Mason is the author of four novels, most recently History of a Pleasure Seeker (Knopf, 2012), about a young aesthete at the height of Europe’s Belle Epoque. He lives in New York City.

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Ellis Avery is the author of two novels, most recently The Last Nude (Riverhead, 2012), inspired by the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia University and lives in New York City.Photographed by Phil Oh

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Bird of ParadiseShe crossed the street toward me on that not-yet-spring day, a clarion burst of purple, white, and green, with little trills of marbled ink and wispy plume. Bird of Paradise, I thought, thank you for braving cold, dirt, and sarcasm to bring a little sparkle to Hudson Street. Lord knows we all needed it as we shuffled along in our dark layers of down: the dog walker, the man with the baby sling, the brunette in fuzzy boots. I looked at the woman, my face a sunflower of gratitude and admiration. “Great outfit,” I said, and she walked by without even a glance my way.I blinked, snubbed, for two long seconds, until the brunette in fuzzy boots met my eye: she’d seen the whole thing. Ah, what can you do? her half-smile said.

Ellis Avery is the author of two novels, most recently The Last Nude (Riverhead, 2012), inspired by the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia University and lives in New York City.